Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Prevention and Awareness month. To all the women who are fighting breast cancer this month and to all the survivors, especially to my Auntie Sue, know that we support you with this cause. Your courage and bravery to fight this is beyond compare. Cancer survivors and fighters are some of the strongest women I know!

In honor of everyone who has been affected by cancer - either ourselves or our family members and dear friends - I am partnering with our Beautycounter team to work together in gifting #1000PouchesWithPurpose to breast cancer patients going through chemotherapy and radiation throughout the US and Canada.

You can sign up to sponsor a pouch that will contain safe, gentle products (free of hormone-disrupting chemicals and carcinogens) to make cancer patients just a bit more comfortable and brighten their day. Several of the pouch products we have selected are particularly effective at soothing dry, irritated, inflamed skin from radiation treatments. I'll be personally donating the pouch and I'm asking for sponsors to help with the products.

In addition, I will donate my entire sales commission from each pouch, in your name, to: Breast Cancer Prevention Partners and Keep A Breast Foundation, two incredible non-profit organizations focused on prevention, early detection and educating young women about breast cancer. Your donation will therefore help to fund research for prevention, as well as gift a current patient with a pouch!!

You can sponsor any pouch shown here, sponsor specific products you'd like to add to a pouch (i.e. body lotion, shampoo/conditioner, baby balm, baby oil, lip conditioner, lip gloss, etc.) or simply make a donation in any amount (I will combine all donations to create as many pouches as possible) by commenting below or sending me a private message, text or email. Here in Northern CT, our pouches will be going to patients undergoing treatment at the Helen and Harry Gray Cancer Center (Hartford Healthcare) in Avon, CT.

Our team goal across the US and Canada is #1000PouchesWithPurpose.

Thank you for supporting such a wonderful cause that is near to my heart! Xoxo

Fall Decor

Hey hey happy day! Today I wanted to keep it short and sweet and share some pictures of my fall home decor. I’m just missing a good table centerpiece. I’m looking for a cornucopia but I can’t seem to find one that I love. Any suggestions are appreciated!. I don’t go too crazy with decorations because Christmas is my time to shine! The day after Thanksgiving all of the fall decorations come down and my house turns into a Christmas explosion. It is full out nutcrackers, Mr. and Mrs. Claus, reindeer, snowmen, and basically any other symbol of Christmas you can think of. Clearly I am already excited for that.

I love how the front came out but these steps are our next renovation. They are completely crumbling! I am so excited about what my husband has in mind to redo them!

This is my favorite part of our mudroom. Jay takes all the credit for this renovation because it was his dream since we got the house. I adore the way it came out, and I adore even more decorating it for the holidays!

The corners of our kitchen look like the epitome of fall. I got these jars from Hobby Lobby last year and I love how they are so versatile. I have them in the kitchen and in the bathroom! Our one salute to Halloween doesn’t even have a picture in it - we’re not in love with that holiday so we may need to put a stock picture in there LOL!

Most of our fall decor is from Michaels or Marshalls. I love mixing the white pumpkins with orange accents because it provides a nice pop color. Did you catch the little gnome? We have plenty more of them for winter, they are Jay's favorite so we had to get one for fall. Last year we did all white and blue but I was feeling more warm tones this year and I am loving it! How do you decorate for fall? Xoxo

Patience

If it feels like I have been a bit MIA it’s because I have been. Work has been taking a lot out of me so when I get home I just don’t have the right energy to write. Today I was able to let go of negative energy and sit down with a clear mind. I want to share about patience and why it can be difficult but why it is so important to have in day to day activities.

Patience is defined as the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. Sounds easy enough, right? One of my new year's resolutions was to be more patient with Jay, but I’m thinking I need to broaden this resolution to being more patient with adults. I realize that I lose my patience much more quickly with adults than I do with children. At work I have the patience of a saint. Young children need to experience things on their own to be able to learn. This got me thinking, why don’t I apply this philosophy when working with adults?

I’ll give you a perfect example, even thinking about what I am going to type already has me starting to lose my cool. Every week I go to the grocery store and bring my own reusable bags, one of which is just for cold things. You know the bag with the insulated lining? Most times when I check out the bagger knows to put all the cold things in that special bag, but not every time. This past weekend I went to the store and to my dismay not a single cold thing got put in that bag. Needless to say I was fuming when I walked out of the grocery store. I called my husband, I ranted about how they never bag my things right, and I angrily threw my groceries in my trunk and drove away. To some this may sound silly, to others you’re agreeing with my rage, and the select few are thinking about the poor bagger I am bashing.

What did that little incident teach me? It taught me that adults, like children, need to be taught and learn new things. My grocery store comparison can be translated into so many other interactions that happen in a day. Think about who it is that you lose your patience with and what they are exactly doing. I can tell you that 95% of the time when I lose my patience with Jay it’s because he’s doing something one way when I know there is a better or easier way to do it; of course he will disagree with me but ladies we know who’s right.

Adults, like children, need the opportunity to try things on their own and explore their own ideas. When you’re in a situation and you feel yourself starting to boil, think what if this were {insert someone you can be patient with}. Have empathy with that person and know that they aren’t trying to annoy you but they may process a situation different than you. No two minds are alike but that is how we learn things! Sometimes I lose my patience with Jay and then realize that he was in fact right or had a better way to solve something (babe, don’t get used to me saying that!). I always tell my students that if everyone were alike in our classroom it would be pretty boring, so apply this concept to the world. To grow as a person you have to be open to others and their ideas, so start today with more patience in mind.

Do you have any tips or tricks to being patient? Yoga breaths also come in handy!! Stay healthy! Xoxo